Everything seems so long ago now; I look
back on my old life and just wonder at how I survived.
When people hear about everything that
has happened to me there's always the "I'm so sorry" moments that I hate.
I'm not sorry it all happened, those
moments made me who I am today.
Granted it wasn't an immediate change, a lot of people probably wonder
how I got to where I am today sitting on the sundeck of our neighborhood in Dubai's
club.

So let me give you a quick breakdown of the
events that led up to today. After
my dad left, my uncle Andy moved into our house.
I was reserved at first because,
honestly I wasn't ready to get close to people.
After awhile I became used to his
presence and it actually calmed me down.
He was my sounding board for everything I'd felt; I could never thank
him enough for that. I felt alone,
unloved, unnoticed. This was true,
I made it so I was alone I made it so people didn't notice me But, one thing I
was never, was unloved. My uncle
forced me to be social with him.
Every night he'd come into my room and just talk, there was nothing
heavy, or about how I'll get over it, he just talked.
Eventually he did get onto the subject
of Ashley and I; he said that I'd never get over it, but I would heal and
eventually live again.

A year after the incident with my father my
sister met a man, and she was dating him.
3 months later she called a mini family meeting.
First thing I said out loud was "she's
preggers I bet you all!" My uncle
and Ty chuckled; my mother looked like Michael Jackson, she was so white.
We later had the meeting and I was
wrong, Colin (that is his name) had proposed and she accepted.
Another 2 months later and they were
married on December 4th funnily enough my real dads birthday.
The wedding was small (not my choice),
my sister had become quite a drag and bitched too much for anyone's liking,
except Colin. Later I told my
brother some S&M shit must be going down there, that was before we both
threw up after seeing that mental image.

My uncle had been offered the senior VP
position of his company, the only thing was the job
included a move to the UAE. The UAE
is a country with 7 cities called Emirates which is
the Arab version of a state. I
cried for a week thinking my uncle was going to move and leave me totally
alone. I wished that he were my
real dad so that I could go with him, just him, Tyler;
and me. I later regretted, that
wish but at the same time wanted it so badly.

Two weeks after the offer appeared my
mother was in a fatal car accident; she and a friend were coming back from a
parish council meeting (the board of directors for a church) when they reached
a road bordering on several farms.
They came up to a truck carrying hay bails.
The driver had been up all night and dosed off for a second, when he woke back up
he had to swerve to avoid hitting a guard rail.
When he swerved the tension on the rear
hay bail cabling caused them to snap.
The bails fell off one by one, unfortunately for my mother and her
friend they were about 1 car length back preparing to pass.
A bail dropped off and they went driver
side first into it. A hay bail
weighs more than a large pickup truck.
They were speeding up to pass so when they hit the bail my mother was
killed instantly, her friend was less lucky and came away with a broken arm and
left leg. I say less lucky –
my mother being lucky because if she hadn't died in that accident she would
have from the Huntington's*
disease she had told my uncle about the previous day.
The plan was always for Tyler and I to
go with uncle Andy.

[I mourned my mother's death and like
Ashley's, I crawled back into my shell.
Among the many reasons why I was sad was because I was got terrified
when I Googled Huntington's disease and found out
there is a 50% chance I'll develop it.
I was also worried for Tyler;
he had the same chance as me of getting the disease.
He took mom's death harder than me, he was a momma's boy.
That's not meant to be offensive, but he
loved our mother unconditionally, and once she was gone he turned to me for
that love, we became really close over time.

During all of these milestones had passed,
I'd turned 16; my sister finished university; we'd moved to Dubai
and started a new life. But all of
that is fairly generic to be honest. The milestone for me was a night where I
realized I didn't like who I saw in the mirror.
I guess I should thank one of my now
best friends who made me have an epiphany after we broke up.
I use to wear baggy close, I had gained
a bit of weight, not enough to be fat, but enough for my face to be a bit
plump. My hair was long and frizzy,
and as well as being baggy my clothes were all black or nearly black.

I was 16, it was spring break, and I had
come back to the UK
to visit Ashley's parents. I was
sitting in my room after IM'ing my friend.
He hadn't responded to my texts for a few days.
At first I was kinda hurt, than I started looking at myself in the
mirror and hating what I saw. I was
so hung up on other people, that I forgot myself.
I let my self get heavy because I didn't
care what I looked like and felt the same with my cloths and hair.
I had gone from a heavy athlete, who did
4-5 different sports a week to no sports at all.
I had a slim body, my muscles had just
started to develop into a promising body, and I realized I had lost all of
that, become lazy, unsocial, and overweight.

Three months later and I was at the sun
deck of a beautiful private club in the center of one of the most prestigious
neighborhoods in the world. I was
rubbing elbows so to speak with royalty, CEO's, doctors, famous scientists, politicians vacationing, all from different countries.
Hell, in our little "Cluster" there are
people from: Canada, France,
UK, Sweden,
Norway, Egypt,
North and South American, Kuwait,
Omen, Saudi Arabia,
and South Korea.
I'll forever be in debt to the guy I was
dating who caused this epiphany - without it I'd probably still be in a rut.

Seeing as I've changed so much since my
last breakdown of my looks, I figure it'd be good to tell you how I look now...
Well now I'm 5 foot 11, my hair is -...

"Ya, dad?"
I had gotten into calling him dad, I
considered him my dad anyway.

"We're officially moved in!
Tyler and I decided we wanted to clear
the last room out while you were at the gym."
Uncle Andy and Tyler had gotten used to
handling the house while I went to the gym every day, give or take a few days
here and there.

"Uhhgrats?" I replied, wondering why im congratulating
him.

"Well hurry your butt up, we're gonna
celebrate." Uncle Andy said.

"Uh ok then." I said, still confused as to
why this was a big deal. We'd been
in the house for like 6 months already.

"Also while we were organizing stuff, a guy
looked at the house next door. We
might have some neighbors soon" Andy said happy yet annoyed. We liked privacy,
the houses next to each other could see into the others garden and we had
gotten used to sun tanning and sometimes I'd skinny dip.
This isn't a huge problem but usually
it's Indian people moving in lately, and I am not racist but they have the rude
ability to stare at someone without thinking that it might piss you off being
started at while you're having food.
But he was happy because maybe someone else my age would move into our
neighborhood. It was mostly young
kids around Tyler's
age or the one kid my age who's super odd...

"K I'll be back in three minutes ish," I
put my shirt back on unplugged my laptop charger, finished my drink and shut my
laptop off...

To Be Continued

*Huntington's disease is a genetic disorder
where cells in the brain waste away or degenerate, causing: Antisocial
behaviors, hallucinations, paranoia, restlessness, moodiness, uncontrollable
movements, dementia and much more.
Huntington's disease is quite literally a living hell

The real story will be starting in the next
chapter, although I'd like some input here, on my last story I switched between
characters to narrate, I am wondering if you like it as first person or would
rather it be between more characters.
So drop me an email with your opinion Sj-09@hotmail.com